The mother of all court defeats
Son who helped his oligarch father hide fortune during £453m divorce has to pay his mum £76million
A CITY trader embroiled in a bitter family feud over a £453 million divorce has been ordered to pay his mother £76 million.
Temur Akhmedov, 27, conspired with his Russian oligarch father to hide a fortune from his mother after the couple’s acrimonious divorce.
Tatiana Akhmedova, 48, launched legal action against her eldest son after her former husband refused to pay the record divorce settlement.
The High Court ruled yesterday she had been ‘the victim of a series of schemes designed to put every penny of the husband’s wealth beyond her reach’.
Judge Gwynneth Knowles ruled that oil tycoon Farkhad Akhmedov had instigated the schemes and the couple’s British-born son Temur had been his ‘right-hand man and loyal lieutenant’.
Temur helped his father move vast sums through a complex series of offshore firms and legal trusts and also received at least £76 million in cash transfers, the court heard.
He claimed the money was financial support for his lifestyle and his career as a City trader, and told the court he had once lost £38 million ‘in an instant’ in bad investments.
But the judge branded his evidence ‘thoroughly dishonest’ and said he should pay his mother almost £76 million for his role in the plot to block her divorce payout.
Mrs Justice Knowles said: ‘Though the consequences for Temur will be financially disastrous, he has only himself to blame for this state of affairs. He
‘Sucked into vortex of bitter family dispute’
embroiled himself in the scheme.’ Mrs Akhmedova and her 65-year-old former husband have been locked in a series of court battles since she launched divorce proceedings in 2013, and have both spent millions of pounds in legal fees.
She was awarded £453 million in a High Court divorce settlement in 2016, but has had to pursue her ex-husband through courts around the world to force him to pay the money.
She said her ex-husband’s ‘vendetta’ had tried to destroy her and wreck her relationship with their eldest son, but insisted her bond with Temur was ‘unbreakable’.
She added: ‘Money does not replace the permanent damage and scars to my children or the devastation that Farkhad has implemented on his own family and children.’
Mrs Justice Knowles ordered that Mrs Akhmedova should receive £885 million from the legal trusts and offshore firms set up by her ex-husband.
A spokesman for Temur said he disagreed with the ruling, but ‘would consider it a price worth paying should it lead to a reasonable settlement between the parents he both loves’.
He said Temur had never wanted to take sides but had ‘inevitably found himself sucked into the vortex of a bitter family dispute’.
Temur owns a £30 million apartment in an exclusive development in central London but told the High Court he had used it to finance a loan to pay his legal fees in the case.
Mrs Akhmedova’s legal bills were paid by a litigation funder, Burford Capital, which will take a substantial share of her payout.
Mr Akhmedov used the offshore trusts to stop his ex-wife from seizing a £300 million super-yacht previously owned by Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich and a £110 million modern art collection including pieces by Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst.
Mr Akhmedov – who is now married to former beauty queen Anna Adamova, 37 – says English courts should have no power in the divorce, because the couple married in Russia in 1993, when they were both Russian citizens.
Mrs Akhmedova is now a British citizen. He said: ‘Entirely predictably, given its original wrong and misguided judgment, the London court has ruled in favour of visiting “the sins” of the father on an innocent and loyal son.’
During hearings at the High Court in London, Temur accused his mother of pursuing the case out of ‘greed’ and said their relationship had been damaged when she embarked on an affair with his best friend’s brother. Mrs Justice Knowles compared their family’s breakdown to the classic Russian novel Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy.
In her written judgment, she said: ‘All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
‘With apologies to Tolstoy, the Akhmedov family is one of the unhappiest ever to have appeared in my courtroom.’